Looking back on life.

I find myself increasing thinking of how much the world has changed in my life-time, I wonder if there have ever been such momentous changes in such a short period of time in the past?

I was born in 1947, in the then Union of South Africa. My most vivid early memories are of the 1950’s. I can remember the sound of the snoek horn, blown by hawkers of fresh snoek. A line fish caught off the Cape and brought in by small boats to be sold in the suburbs as soon as possible.

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My mother would hold them up by the tail and check them for freshness, that night we would feast on fresh snoek. There was something magical about the sound of the snoek-horn, alas it is only a memory today. Life was uncomplicated by today’s standards, no TV, no computers, we all listened to Springbok Radio. As a child I knew nothing of the political situation and happily remember going to the river with little coloured kids to catch frogs. The grim realities of apartheid South Africa meant nothing to me then and would only become apparent when I started school at age six, but that is another story for another time.

It is when I put pen to paper as it were that I realise just how much I could write about. Today’s world is so different. Here I sit with a computer screen before, a mobile phone and a tablet on my desk. Do I look back with nostalgia at the old days? On some levels yes, but where would I be without today’s mod-cons, for one I would not be able to do what I am doing now communicating my thoughts to the wide world out there. Take the best of the past but in my eyes the future although uncertain holds many opportunities.

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